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tv   Hardball With Chris Matthews  MSNBC  November 15, 2012 2:00pm-3:00pm PST

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romney says obama bought the election. let's play "hardball." ♪ good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this. you thought that mitt romney would have stopped this crap. during the campaign he was out there selling it, that president obama was buying black votes by dumping the work requirement for welfare. remember that little sugar plum? it had it all, the accusation that minority voters could be scarfed up with chump change. throw them something and the votes will come pouring back. here he is yesterday, romney, sha noosichmoozing with his don about how the whole thing went wrong. i bought the minority was health care and bought the students. wow, great work there, mitt. you're at it again with your
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double barrels. one, claims that aren't true, and, two, that old dog whistle of yours, fact. people in the income bracket you mentioned have to kick in to get health care. fact, students still have to play interest on their college loan. nobody is getting anything for free. and the sick thing is your need, mitt, they claim they did. to say the president didn't quite win the election was one big bribery case. question, why is mitt still doing this? the election is over and lost. all that's left to save is his reputation. why is he throwing that way away? willie brown is here along with ashley parker of the "new york times." mayor, you were a pro, it seems that romney is not a pro. he had a good concussion speech. the president through him a big offer, a hoover commission. he whips back with this accusation the president bought the election. >> total and complete bitterness. this man obviously is wrong for the game. he has lost and he lost badly.
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he's embarrassed, and he's trying his best to minimize the victory. he's trying his best in some fashion to say to people it was taken from me unfairly, that i should have won, and that if there had been only my kind of people voting, i would have won. however there was some other people voting, and they're the people that you and i don't like. that's what he's saying to his people, and that's wrong. >> let's take a look at the audio from the conference just like that 47% it was recorded. let's hear romney talking to his donors in which he says in this tape the president's victory was basically the result bribes to members of his base. portions were posted online. msnbc is uncertain exactly when the call took place but let's listen to it. >> but the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn
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them out to vote. >> isn't that cute? in other words, it's not democracy, parker. it's not any -- i mean, ashley, this isn't democracy, this isn't saying and doing things people like. it's not like voting democr democratical democratically. what kind of game is he proposing? >> i think the thing you need to keep in mind about governor romney, a, he's shocked he lost. he really can't quite get over that he lost. he really thought he was going to win. and he's a data driven guy. he's already doing a postmortem going back -- >> data mining. >> trying to figure out what went wrong this is one of the things -- >> mayor, again, it's interesting a money guy, i have always noted the sort of symmetry of politics, people with a little problem with ethics always accuse the others of ethics problems. bought everything he ever got including his highly paid staff in the campaign. everybody was happy with using money on that side. he assumes he must have been outbid. >> that's exactly what someone who thinks he can buy votes was
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in fact doing. this guy is a salesman, chris. he doesn't know anything about making decisions based on whether or not it's something you believe in. he is of the opinion that money can generate belief, and in this case he doesn't understand how money didn't generate belief, how, in fact, dedication and vision and love dedicated, caused the movement in obama's direction, not money. >> it couldn't be that people believe in barack obama. couldn't be many people are devoted to him. couldn't be that people see him as potentially one of our great presidents. it must be a cash and carry situation. here are comments about the gifts. karl rove must love this. this is covering karl rove. it's about the takers he calls them. remember that 47%? here essex planing how you buy that 47%. they take, you give. let's listen. >> there are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. all right. there are 47% who are with him,
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who depend upon government, who believe they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they're entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. my job is not to worry about those people. i will never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. >> actually here he is again in "usa today." romney in an interview. he defends the welfare ads which say obama waived the work requireme requirement. it's designed to shore up his base for the election. finally paul ryan on the urban vote. let's listen to paul ryan and his looking at the urban vote he calls it. >> we were surprised with the outcome. we knew this was going to be a close race. we thought we had a good chance of winning it. i think the surprise was some of the turnout. some of the turnout in especially urban areas which definitely gave president obama
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the big margin to win this race. >> you know, ashley, they got to get their accusations straight. somebody on one of the leaders of the republican party out there in wisconsin said all the votes were fraudulent votes, they were all stolen. now he's out there, the presidential candidate, saying they were all bought. and now this guy is -- i have to say to paul ryan, he is just surprised they showed up. he hasn't quite figured out the motive yet. >> i think the romney campaign obviously didn't take into account the huge turnout that the president got. that was one of the problems with their polling. >> is that why they're looking for new explanations? >> i think they're truly struggling to explain what happened, and they don't really understand how they lost. that's not what their internal models told them. that's not what they were expecting. they weren't expecting the huge turnout. >> let's talk turkey, mr. mayor. you have worked with donor bases on the democratic side. you have to occasionally call up and say we were close but no cigar this time but stick with us, we're on the right side of
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history. why would you call the donor base, why get on a conference call and come up with this odd explain nation, that this was stolen, we was robbed basically? why would you do that politically? >> i think because it's over for him. he will not be involved in running for office again. let me tell you, other republicans who think they have a future must in one fashion or another denounce mitt romney and everything he says post this election cycle. if they don't, the republicans will be consigned to the scrap heap of defeat in 2016 and even beyond. i don't understand how anybody other than bobby jindal would be the only one who would step up to the plate. they all should step up to the plate. >> well, well-said. here is bobby jindal, one of the people who has distanced himself from this claim the only reason romney lost the race to president obama is because he was out bought. as you said, here is louisiana governor, jobby jindal. let's listen. >> i absolutely reject that
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notion, that description. i think that's absolutely wrong. i don't think that represents where we are as a party and where we're going as a party. and i think that's got to be one of the most fundamental take aways from the election. >> that's a good sign that a little republican diversity won't hurt. scott walker backed up jindal's comments saying the gop isn't just for people who are currently not dependent on the people, it's for all americans. andrea mitchell reports republican senator kelly ayotte distanced herself also from the gifts comment. >> so the you're not comfortable with what you heard him say? >> i don't know the full context of them but i don't agree with the comments, and my view is the campaign is over. >> okay. as of only -- not only her, former mississippi governor haley barbour who i think is smart when he's briefing on politics, described what the gop needs to do right now. let's listen to haley barbour. >> we've got to give our
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political organizational activity, you know, a very serious proctology exam. i think that's the only -- we need to look everywhere is my point. >> you know, he's deep south and conservative, mayor, but i always listen to him for the truth, especially when he's with some other republicans trying to teach them politics. you know, there's the only guy to come out ahead of katrina because he knew how to get the job done. what do you think of that? when parties get their butts kicked like democrats did in '72, republicans did in '64, when they thought they had -- well, those races didn't look good to begin with, but right now what do you do when you're in a party leadership position? >> if they don't adhere to what bobby jindal is talking about, the senator from new hampshire. if they don't understand haley barbour, i can assure you democrats are really going to get that message and, believe me, if democrats organized the
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red state like they did in ohio this time around or like they did in florida this time around or like they did in one or two other states this time around, those red states would send the numbers that nancy pelosi needs to become speaker again. and that's going to happen if the republicans keep thinking like mitt romney. >> you know, that's the question, ashley, and that is as you see the demographic changes, younger voters tend to be more liberal. a lot of hispanic people moving into the country having a lot of kids and voting and being citizens, becoming a part of a political process more than ever and you have african-american voters, an african-american president but there are other factors that have led hem to the democratic party potentially. you see a lot of potential for the democratic party to grow. then the other party says you're all bought, it seems to me that would just sort of fortify the democratic tendencies of the people we've been talking about here. >> well, it's unclear what wing of the republican party mitt romney, you know, is going to be representing going forward, and i think that's one of the
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reasons -- >> the mayor says he's out of business. i'm not sure he has a future. >> that's why it's easy for the republicans to come out and criticize him because they're not alienating a tea party -- >> you said people like jindal and ayotte and people like that and haley barbour can say the guy is wrong. >> i think they did say that. i think they said they didn't agree with those comments so -- >> let me go back to this -- you know, i want to talk about the president for a second. i thought mitt romney gave a wonderful concussion speech. he said i called the president, it was 11:20 or so. he came out and basically said, you know, he came out alone, didn't bring the family with him, didn't cry on anybody's shoulder, took it like a person of some kind of nobility. he also said i just talked to the president. i congratulated him, i'm praying for him, i'm here to help him if he wants help. the president came back and side maybe -- he did a good job with the olympics. make maybe he can do a good job
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in getting government more efficient, that's his specialty. then he does this thing. where do you think that relationship stands? is the blood so bad nothing good will come out of this? >> let me tell you, when you offend barack obama, you've got to know that you're in real trouble. this is a guy who appears to forgive, but he never forgets. romney can forget any additional invitations coming from this president. i think no matter how you put it, he now knows where romney really stands. it's around affirmation of everything that occurred in the campaign, all the bad things that were said about barack obama are still obviously within the dna of mitt romney, and i guarantee you barack obama is not going to give at all on this issue. he's going to move on. >> whoa. look out. look out, mitt. thank you, mayor. always an incisive commentary from you. if this is the case, you're right, he better move on.
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thai, mayor brown of california -- san francisco. ashley, thanks for coming on. it's not business, it's personal. that public dispute between john mccain and president obama over susan rice. could it be mccain hasn't gotten over the 2008 election. we're sort of stacking up revenge here on the other side. i got nothing more to say about that. plus spy fall, what we're learning about the affair that brought down the cia chief and perhaps derailed the promoths of the top general. besides complaining about how president obama won re-election by giving away gifts to minorities and young voters, wonder what mitt romney has been doing since the election? david letterman has an idea. >> today mitt romney drew a picture of the house of representatives chamber and gave a state of the union address in front of it. >> and the fourth new entitlement, obama care, we'd repeal that one. >> we have a few more of those sugar plums in the "sideshow."
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plet me finish with a book about when we had a hero for a president. this is "hardball," the place for politics.
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time to bust another 2012 lest myth. the idea took hold that african-americans would not be as fired up to vote as they were four years ago. but here is what the nbc news political desk found in looking at the exit polls. in the states with significant black populations the black vote increased in five states, michigan, mississippi, missouri, ohio, and new jersey. it held firm in pennsylvania, virginia, north carolina, and florida. and it decreased in two states, new york and alabama. neither case was it even close. so much for flagging enthusiasm. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] some day, your life will flash before your eyes.
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♪ make it worth watching. ♪ the new 2013 lexus ls. an entirely new pursuit.
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welcome back to "hardball." john mccain and his allies have been trying to turn the benghazi attacks into a political scandal for the president since september. yesterday his criticism of susan rice, the ambassador to the u.n., went too far for the
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president. he hit back during his press conference. let's listen. >> if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. but for them to go after the u.n. ambassador who had nothing to do with benghazi and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received? and to besmirch her reputation is outrageous. >> that's the slow burn for the president i'd say. this morning mccain had some strong words for his former opponent, the president. let's listen to mccain. >> i know people don't come to spontaneous demonstrations with rockets and mortars, and for the president of the united states for two weeks afterwards to deny that that was the case is either a cover-up or it is incompetence. >> one of mccain's main allies, lindsay graham of south carolina, also responded to the president.
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he said, quote, mr. president, don't think for one minute i'm going to hold you ultimately responsible for benghazi. i think you failed as commander in chief before, during, and after the attack. what's behind all this anger? jonathan alter is a columnist for bloomberg view and ron reagan is an msnbc political analyst. gentlemen, i want you to start with this. it's so unusual to see the president respond at the human level of i'm really mad and you have gone after a friend of mine. you have gone after my person at the u.n., and this is you coming at me and you're going at my character. i'm not missing the point. >> i heard from the white house yesterday that he had heard just before the press conference that mccain was talking about filibustering and he got -- >> if she were put up for secretary of state. >> and he got really angry at that, that his choice for secretary of state, which she's not yet, but that perspectively his choice would be filibustered. >> why is he so ticked, the president? >> because she's completely
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innocent in this matter. >> not by the likes of the right. >> there are actual facts here, and the facts are that she was saying what the cia told her. >> but that wasn't a fact. but that wasn't a fact. >> mccain's issue is with petraeus, but petraeus is in the club, despite the sex -- >> that's -- >> he doesn't want to go after petraeus. >> she's not a spook. she doesn't go out there and dig up information. she's the u.n. ambassador to new york. she selects information. she gets the best intel she can get. probably clears it through the television. i thought made a strong statement to david gregory that weekend and i thought she was very impressive. i thought she was doing what the white house wanted done. whatever she was doing, she was doing what the probable cause thought was the truth. why would you lie because two or three days later it would be clear you were lying, right? >> it wasn't -- >> he keeps saying it was lying. >> we have time lines. that was the 16th of september. it wasn't until the 22 nd of september according to the cia that they told rice and the
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white house that this was, you know, some kind of a terrorist attack. the information wasn't available at the beginning. the whole thing is totally trumped up, chris. it's not just political, it's also personal. >> okay. before we get back to history like condi rice, i want to go to ron reagan on this. you know, there's something deeply personal here. there's something personal on both sides. this guy, john mccain, does not forgive when he loses to somebody. i don't think he ever liked romney. that's why he picked sarah palin. he doesn't like the president. and the way to get to him is to make sure that everybody thinks he's a bad guy. not stupid, not wrong, not too liberal, he's evil. he's bad. he's the kind of guy that would serve up a good serving american ambassador like chris stevens in order for a pr stunt or some other unclear motive, but he wants to make the guy look like a bad guy. what do you think is going on here? that's what i think. >> yeah. i think you're right basically. republicans seem to be really bad losers. mitt romney is apparently a bad loser. john mccain as you said earlier, i don't think he's ever gotten
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over 2008. so he's looking for any opportunity he has to stick a thumb in barack obama's eye. but jonathan is completely right. he picked the wrong person here. susan rice had nothing to do with benghazi. but, look, the republicans are facing an electoral wipeout in the last election. they still want to oppose barack obama any way they can, but what's their excuse? because the american people have now chosen barack obama over the republican guy. so what do they do? they have to gin up a conspiracy, a scandal of some sort, something they can attach the word gate to. now it's benghazi-gate. >> ron, you got it. this is the big alternative universal view of their world view in which you don't know what color the sky is over there. but they believe that this is as big as watergate and although nixon got re-elected in '72, he will come down by '74 even though this guy won in '12, he will come down by '14 because of this big gate ron mentioned. they have it in their head this is big time. >> in 1997 after bill clinton got re-elected but before
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lewinsky, the republicans tried to do the same thing on chinese fund-raising. remember that? they spent the better part of a year trying to turn this into a huge scandal. there is a little more to that one than there is to this. this is just exploiting a tragedy for political purposes. >> and here is the great irony. john mccain, who seems like he's the big whistle-blower, going after susan rice yesterday. compare what he said about susan rice yesterday with what he said about another foreign policy expert, in this case condoleezza rice, back in 2005. here is mccain on susan rice. take a listen. >> susan rice should have known better, and if she didn't know better, she's not qualified. she should have known better. i will do everything in my power to block her from being the united states secretary of state. >> okay. mortal sin, deal breaker, end of her career because john mccain said she had gotten the wrong brief and delivered the wrong brief. however, mccain had a very different reaction back in 2005 when condoleezza rice was nominated for secretary of state despite her direct involvement
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in the country's iraq policy, mccain trucked up opposition to her nomination to bitter innocence over losing an election. interesting. let's watch. >> i wonder why we're starting this new congress with a protracted debate about a foregone conclusion. i can only conclude we're doing this for no other reason than because of lingering bitterness at the outcome of the elections. >> talk about a self-indictment. mccain was asked about the contradiction this morning on the "today" show. let's listen to him now today. >> you said opponents of condoleezza rice were expressing sour grapes after an election loss. why is this different? >> because every intelligence agency in the world, including the british, believe that iraq had weapons of mass destruction. that was an entire different situation. four americans died that didn't have to die. >> okay. two points, never let that go past what he just said there. first of all, thousands of people were killed in iraq because of a war that was never justified.
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thousands. and he said four as if nothing happened in iraq. all thots dead iraqis, all those dead americans. hell went loose over there because of that bad policy. what was the other thing? oh, yeah, wmd, what a clever phrase that was, wmd. it covers all platter of things, biological, chemical. condoleezza rice said nuclear. she said that country had a nuclear weapon, a nuclear weapon. that's why we went to war. don't wait for -- what is it? don't wait for the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud. it was her. why does he keep getting -- who does he talk to? an echo chamber? he gives away the mouthwash they sold us into the war with, wmd, not nuclear. all the intelligence -- even our own intelligence agency never believed we had -- they had nuclear weapons. why why does washington treat him as this great sage on national security policy? he's been the most frequent guest on sunday shows, the sabbath gas bags on sunday. he's the most frequent guest
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because everybody assumes he's such a knowledgeable man full of such integrity on foreign policy and national security. yes, he was -- endured great hardship -- >> he had a longer period of greatness. he stood up against those people in the wmpld campaign in south carolina. >> but in the last three years he's turned into a cranky and unreliable analyst of american foreign policy. >> i have a more explanation which is he's just going over to hard right where all the safety valves are in the republican party. ron, your last thought. why has john mccain become this john mccain. he's like the joker in batman. life has been good to me. >> i think it's personal peak. i think he never got over 2008. he's got a double standard going on between the two rices and it's apples and oranges. susan rice had nothing to do with benghazi. condoleezza rice had a lot to do with the war in iraq. the comparison is specious on
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any level. >> why doesn't he ever talk about all the republicans who voted against $300 million that hillary clinton wanted to beef up embassy and consulate security? there are some questions, there are republicans who opposed that need to answer. that's one of the reasons those people lost their lives. >> it's sad. thank you, ron reagan and jonathan alter. coming up, there are dog whistles and then there are bull horns and another republican official is blowing his next. and that is "hardball," the place for politics. into their work,
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building at 1602 pennsylvania avenue, demolished it, and built an even bigger white house. today mitt romney september his goons to rough up a guy who kind of looks like mahmoud ahmadinejad. >> how is it going? >> today mitt romney paid a phone sex operator $500 to call him president romney. >> i bring down the tax rates. >> yes, president romney, lower tax rates. >> today mitt romney drew a picture of the house of representatives chamber and gave a state of the union address in front of it. >> and the fourth new entitlement, obama care, we'd repeal that one and finally get our balance sheet right. >> a message from pretend president romney. >> i love that guy's voice. the real romney has gotten back into the problem area you could say with his post-election comments that the president won the election or re-election because of gifts he gave minority people and younger
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voters. also, mystery voters head to maine. it appears there's company up there for alberta darling, that wisconsin state senator who said lack of voter i.d. cards or laws were largely to blame for mitt romney's loss of wisconsin. here is charlie webster, the republican chairman in maine, on the issue of voter fraud in his state. >> for example, in some parts of rural maine, there were dozens, dozens of black people who came in and voted election day. everybody has the right to vote, but nobody in town knows anybody who is black. how did it happen? i don't know. we're going to find out. >> anyway, two questions for mr. webster there. one, if all these african-americans were voting where they weren't registered, why didn't anyone stop them? election officials in maine say they're unaware of any cheating. two, if democrats were trying to steal a state, why would they go to one with just four electoral votes that hasn't voted republican since back in '88? anyway, webster will not be returning for another term as
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chairman of that party up there. next, john boehner was re-elected yesterday for a second term as speaker of the house but georgia congressman louis go mert, a charter member of the birther crowd had a different candidate in mind. who do you think he nominated? newt gingrich for speaker right now. you don't technically actually have to be a house member to be speaker of the house, but it's been the rule historically. by the way, boehner's word to go mert after the word, louie, i love you, too. after the election, we heard certain ceos were threatening to fire employees if president obama wob the election. some are going through with it. bobt murray, ceo of the coal company laid off 156 employees the day after the election. john schneider ceo the papa john's pizza says he will be cutting employee hours to avoid costs associated with obama care. finally, john met, ceo of several denny's franchises says he will add a 5% surcharge to customers' bills to offset the
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cost of obama care. you don't want to pay extra, he said tip the server less to offset the cost. what a sweetheart. up next, new information on the affair that brought down cia director david petraeus. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. [ male announcer ] when was the last time something made your jaw drop?
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i'm hampton pearson with your cnbc market wrap. stocks move lower amid continued worries about the fiscal cliff. the dow falls 28 points, the s&p loses 2, the nasdaq lower by 10 points. walmart shares lost more than 3%. its earnings beat estimates but revenue fell short. apple shares continue to slide. they're off another 2% today hitting a six-month low. and weekly jobless claims jumped by 78,000 to 439,000, an
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18-month high, due to hurricane sandy. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. now back to "hardball." back to "hardball." we now know the identity of that fbi agent that tampa socialite jill kely reached out to. fredrick humphrey is the guy's name and you can see him there on the screen. he's a counterterrorism agent who worked in the case of the bomb plot at l.a.x. airport back in '99. the man at the center of the scandal, david petraeus, is set to testify tomorrow morning before closed hearings before the house and senate intelligence committees regarding the attack on benghazi. this comes as the cia inspector general has begun investigating
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whether any government resources were improperly used in the affair between petraeus and broadwell. "the washington post" sari horwitz is reporting on this as well as bart gelman. this is a huge story. i want sari to give us a sense of the public impact of this thing. i mean, it's getting more like, i guess, the kardashian story, life among these people with mrs. kelley here who, you know, has become the interest of general allen and, of course, she's somehow disturbing the world view of broadwell who seems to be having an affair with general petraeus. all this sort of back and forth intrigue. it's what you build a soap opera out of because it never stops growing. what's it matter right now? where are we at in the matter department? >> hi, chris. hi, bart. it's a soap opera. there's been jokes it's not a love triangle, it's a love pentagon. here is what's important on the public interest level. attorney general eric holder at
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a press conference today in new orleans to announce the biggest criminal settlement, the biggest criminal fines and resolution ever in american history against bp is asked about this soap opera in tampa regarding petraeus. and what he said is, look, there are a lot of things going on right now but the important thing is there was no breach of national security. if there had been a breach of national security, we would have taken this to the fbi -- the fbi would have taken this to the white house. they would have taken it to capitol hill. since there was none, we didn't feel like we had to share a criminal investigation. that's an important development. it's the first time he's spoken out on this. >> so there's nothing really there in terms of impact on the country's security. let me go to bart on the same question, the relationship between general petraeus and the reporter broadwell. you know, often times, and i guess in movies or in mellow drama you're used to the fact a report is use agroman tick relationship to get information out of a source. was this woman, broadwell,
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getting anything of intelligence or security matters or classified away from the general? >> well, everyone denies it, and i'm aware of no evidence otherwise. by the way, nobody ever asks me to exchange sex for information so -- although if someone did ask me that on twitter today. the serious point about eric holder's point and sari's point i think is that the justice department and fbi made the judgment that the fact that the cia director had a secret that could expose him to blackmail was not in itself inherently a risk to national security. they found out something or took some steps that persuaded them that it was okay. i think a strong case could be made that that's a decision that should be left to the president, that the president has to decide whether he's comfortable having a cia director with that kind of potential vuler in 5ebvulnerabi.
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i'm not sure the president will want the attorney general to substitute his judgment on that. >> well said, but what about the president who is told about such a relationship. the first officer on the deck if you will of this country's security, you find out a guy or woman who is head of the cia has been having an affair with a reporter and you lit them stay in office. how do you defend that to the public when the public finds out you knew about it and you o kated basically? how do you deal with that politically? >> politically i can't say. substantively blackmail vulnerability depends usually on whether you're afraid of the secret leaking to your family or to your boss. if you've told both, for example, but haven't announced it to the whole world, a president might decide that that is adequate protection against blackmail but that's a judgment call the commander in chief should make. >> also would give the president unusual hold over an employee besides being able to fire him, he could out him. >> i guess there's that. >> i'm serious. i'm thinking of all the political impacts.
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let's get back to this story as you're looking at it. if you're a first class reporter like you, you're looking at this story as to where it's heading. where is this going to be a week from now? petraeus will testify about benghazi which i think is going to be a bigger story as it develops if there is a story, i'm not sure there is. obviously they will hit him hard tomorrow. this question of whether this hanky-panky is going to lead anywhere, if you will. >> well, you know, it's interesting. yesterday when obama was asked about the fbi, which has now come under scrutiny, he said, look, i generally have confidence in the fbi. not a ringing endorsement. he said i generally have confidence but let me get all the facts about what happened. the fbi under robert muller, who has so much integrity and is highly respected, argues they were doing the right thing. the fbi agent interestingly, this is what we found out today, the fbi agent who brought this originally to congress and to eric cantor who called muller, says he never meant to be a whistle-blower. he was not trying to make a big deal about this case.
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he just wanted to quietly get it moving and he told a friend who went to a congressman from washington state where fredrick humphries is from who went to eric cantor and that's how it got to muller. >> okay, okay. >> he's being incorrectly called a whistle-blower. >> sari, he goes to a congress person, going outside of his agency, about a person who is being accuse -- somebody who is making accusations of being harassed by e-mail. is that important enough hearing from some other woman jealous of her, that that's worthy of congressional attention? >> i think the fbi agent heard general petraeus was involved in this and there had possibly been a breach of his computer. he didn't have all the facts. he wasn't the agent on the case. he just knew bits and pieces. because it had to do with petraeus and because he heard the words national security, he was concerned and didn't want the agency to slow walk -- >> chris -- >> is humphrey a republican or democrat? is he pro or against the president? >> i really don't know what political stance the agent is,
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no. >> can i just cut in. what sari just said may be the only security breach in this case that we know happened for a fact. this agent who brought the case to the tampa field us a was not part of the case, had been told repeatedly as we understand it not to get involved in the case, and if they've picked up in the course of it the fact that paula broadwell is involved with the cia director, how does he know that? he's not supposed to know that. >> bart is exactly right. obviously he's getting information from the investigators or miss kelley, but he's not part of the case. exactly right, bart. >> i have been hearing from the liberal or progressive blogs, they're very suspicious about why he did what he did, why he went to the congress with this, to the republican congress people and going to cantor ultimately makes people wonder what was his political angle? >> it's interesting, chris, chris, it's interesting, he sent a photo to miss kelley of him and jesse jackson at a political fund-raiser. that's why i say it's unclear
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what his political affiliations are. >> that does mushg it up a bit. thank you bart and sari. thanks for ruining my theory. president obama toured some of the hardest hit parts of the new york area as recover continues after hurricane sandy. there's chuck schumer right behind him. this is "hardball," the place for politics. two years ago, the people of bp made a commitment to the gulf. bp has paid over twenty-three billion dollars to help those affected and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open, and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. and bp's also committed to america. we support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger.
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secretary shawn donovan to lead the disaster recovery board to oversee rebuilding efforts in the region, and they are going to be a lot of work up there. senator chuck schum wrer in new york was there. we saw him in the picture. senator schumer, the more you read about it, "the new york times" has been very good at covering this and the other papers up there. the sense that this isn't just a bad week or two or a bad month. >> oh, no. >> this destruction of homes without any home left. the homes have been destroyed, the electrical systems destroyed. talk about it if you can. the public's watching. the whole country. >> yeah. this is -- >> how bad is it? it's like katrina. >> it is awful. it's close to katrina. you know, the first day after the stormy flew in a helicopter with the governor and mayor and i saw how widespread it was, and in the last two weeks i've been going in all the communities. you see how deep it is. and it's a combination. there are probably more than 100,000 people who -- 100,000 homes that have been destroyed. that's 300,000 people without homes. that's the size -- you know, that's a middle-sized american
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city. we have lots of office buildings downtown that can't work. nyu hospital, one of the leading hospitals in the country, all their machines were on the first floor in the basement. hundreds of millions of dollars of mris and amts and axial tomography. the damage is so varied in so many different ways and so deep. i was up on the 16th -- i didn't climb up that high. the 18th floor of a housing project. three elderly women had been there for two weeks. they couldn't get down. no electricity. no elevators. and there they are. they don't have water. they don't have light. they don't have heat. they don't have plumbing. volunteers were bringing them food and clothing. it's just awful. it's just awful. >> tell us about this. i've been trying to bring attention to some of the groups i've gotten to know in the last couple of weeks. but tell me about the federal government. if you lose a house, if you have your electrical system destroyed, if everything around the house basically has to be rebuilt, can you get the money from the federal government or is this going to have to be private insurance? >> this is one of the problems.
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the most private insurance doesn't have -- is not flood insurance. some people have flood insurance, and some people don't. and then fema will pay a maximum of 31,400. well, you can have a bungalow, a little tiny home in new york, and 31,400 isn't going to bring that back. this is something we have to look at. they did after katrina figure out a way to use cdbg money for this and it's something we're going to have to do. there are so many different things that have to be covered here. the storm was so great. 14 feet higher than we've ever seen it. the brooklyn battery tunnel had 100 million gallons of water from one end to the other. totally full. it had to be pumped out. but in addition to that, we have -- we have so many places where all the barriers, the natural barriers are gone. and there are literally hundreds of thousands of people who live close to the water. >> tell me about this -- what are we going to get? you're a powerful senator. you've been good at it. after 9/11 i remember you went
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up to w, president w, and i think i overheard you say we need 20 billion. >> that's true. >> and he did it. and by the way, he stuck by it. i asked him privately in the room with senator clinton and the two virginia senators. he said yes. then we went outside. he spoke. he didn't announce it. so i was next to speak. and i said, and the president's been extremely generous. he's promised $20 billion for new york to rebuild. >> how are you going to get it this time for the people of the boroughs especially? but i can't believe the damage done in manhattan itself. the guy that died in his car in the basement. he was a garage attendant. that's a horrible story. >> it's everywhere. it's so widespread because we're such a large area and it hit over such a large area. and i'm just seeing in new york, new jersey has similar type damage. how are we going to do it? it's going to be harder because obviously there's a republican house that has not been as friendly to disaster relief. the disaster money for irene was actually held up because these folks said for every dollar you spend on disaster you've got to find a place to cut. that's the way to make sure we don't help in disaster.
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>> senator, i want to make a promise to you. you have a place here to make noise about this. keep coming back to us about this. >> i will. thanks, chris. >> senator chuck schumer. by the way, i told you yesterday about st. francis the sales church of bell harbor in rockaway in queens. they've set up a relief center. it's doing a huge service, helping people get access to generators and get back on their feet. if you want to help this local relief effort you can send a contribution to saint francis de sales parish, 129-16ricaway beach boulevard, belle harbor, new york. and write on the check relief effort. you're watching "hardball" right now, the place for politics. this family used capital one venture miles
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let me finish tonight with this. i spent a good deal of time pulling together the powerful unknown story of the late president john f. kennedy. i wrote the book in an unusual way for a historic figure. i based it on people who knew him personally. very personally. guys who worked with him in politics. pals from the navy. prep school chums. people who served, as i said, as fellow politicians. well, the book attempts to answer that question that jack kennedy himself said was really the reason people read biography or even history in the first place, to find out what's he like. and searching for jack kennedy i found a fascinating man, a man of deeply hidden health problems, an inveterate reader himself, especially of history, a true war hero. i found a fighting prince never free from pain, never far from trouble, never accepting the world he found, never wanting to be his father's son. he was a far greater hero than he ever wished us to know. jack kennedy,